Tag: Indian

science

Indian astronomers detect companion star to V1787 Ori

[email protected]_84

Indian astronomers detect companion star to V1787 Ori
The processed NACO Ks band image of V1787 Ori and the 2 nearby stars is shown. V1787 Ori A is shown in the larger green circle. The yellow arrow is pointing towards the wide binary companion V1787 Ori B. Credit: Arun et al., 2020.

Astronomers from India have reported the finding of a companion star to an intermediate-mass Herbig Ae star known as V1787 Ori. The newly detected object turns out to be of M-type and is about 60% less massive than our sun. The discovery was detailed in a paper published November 20 on arXiv pre-print repository.


Located some 1,260 light years away, in the L1641 star-forming region of the Orion A molecular cloud, V1787 Ori (also known as Parenago 2649) is a young (less than 10 million years old) pre-main sequence (PMS) star of spectral type A5. Therefore, based on previous studies, the object has been classified as

… Read More
technology articles

Indian digital pay arena gets more convoluted with opaque 30% cap on transactions

[email protected]_84

google-india.png

Image: Google

For a country and a government that has strained mightily to be viewed as pro-business, its imposition of a limit on how many customers a company can acquire in one of the hottest areas of the technology and investment landscape — one into which billions of dollars have been pumped — is very bizarre behaviour.

That’s what the Indian government did very recently when it decided to impose a 30% cap on all UPI transactions per player. UPI, or United Payments Interface, is an instant, real-time, payments system first piloted by the government in 2016.

Money can be transferred between two bank accounts thanks to an India specific stack, or a collection of software utilities available as an API and targeted at entrepreneurs.

First, a little context and an explanation to this: Digital payments in India have exploded over the past 10 years. The technology is used by

… Read More
technology

Google Reportedly Wants to Buy Indian Social Media Firm ShareChat

[email protected]_84

Four months after taking a stake in India’s biggest mobile carrier, Google  (GOOG) – Get Report is reportedly interested in buying a fast-growing Indian social media firm.

The search giant is in talks to buy startup ShareChat in a deal that could be worth slightly more than $1 billion, according to a report from India’s Economic Times. For comparison, ShareChat was valued at $650 million in a 2019 funding round.

Following strong 2020 growth, ShareChat claims to have more than 160 million monthly active users (MAUs) for its core app. In addition, the company recently launched a short-form video app called Moj, around the time that TikTok was banned in India. Moj is said to have amassed more than 80 million MAUs in less than five months.

ShareChat’s core app lets users share videos and other content through both a core feed and groups that feature chat rooms

… Read More
new technology

Indian oil firms need to bring in foreign players to unlock resources: Pradhan

[email protected]_84

India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan speaks at a road show organised by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) in Mumbai, India, October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked exploration companies to consider farming out their acreages to global players with advanced technology to expedite development and raise oil and gas output.

India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, depends on foreign purchases for over 80% of its oil needs. The nation’s oil and gas output has been stagnant for years, forcing it to raise reliance on imports to meet rising fuel demand.

“The government will grant petroleum mining lease rights but the companies should consider a farm-out (of a stake) to get global technology players,” Pradhan said in Hindi.

Indian exploration companies should work at “exponential speed” to unlock resources, Pradhan said at production sharing signing ceremony of 11

… Read More
new technology

Modi Seeks Funding to Build Smarter Indian Cities Post Pandemic

[email protected]_84

(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to attract foreign investment to modernize India’s urban centers as the world’s second-most-populous nation rebuilds its economy after the coronavirus pandemic halted activity.



Narendra Modi holding a phone

© Bloomberg
Narendra Modi

Covid-19 has given governments the chance to accelerate the “process of making cities more livable for people,” Modi said in his speech at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Tuesday. “We are looking at a future where a major chunk of education, healthcare, shopping, may happen online. Our cities need to be ready for the convergence of the physical and digital worlds.”

Loading...

Load Error

India plans to continue raising funds in areas including urban technology and transport, he added. The country will have to develop up to 800 million square meters each year till 2030 with more than 40% of population expected to live in cities, according to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The

… Read More
new technology

Indian oil firms need to bring in foreign players to unlock resources- minister

[email protected]_84

NEW DELHI, Nov 17 (Reuters) – India’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked exploration companies to consider farming out their acreages to global players with advanced technology to expedite development and raise oil and gas output.

India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, depends on foreign purchases for over 80% of its oil needs. The nation’s oil and gas output has been stagnant for years, forcing it to raise reliance on imports to meet rising fuel demand.

“The government will grant petroleum mining lease rights but the companies should consider a farm-out (of a stake) to get global technology players,” Pradhan said in Hindi.

Indian exploration companies should work at “exponential speed” to unlock resources, Pradhan said at production sharing signing ceremony of 11 oil and blocks by state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp ONGC.NS and Oil India Ltd OILI.NS.

India’s exploration licensing rounds have so far seen

… Read More
science

“Revolutionary change” expected from new Indian space policy

[email protected]_84

HELSINKI — A draft policy on opening up India’s space sector is expected to bring transformational change, the chairman of the commercial arm of the Indian space agency said Nov. 10.

Speaking during an interview at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week Virtual Edition conference, chairman and managing director of Antrix Corp. Rakesh Sasibhushan said the Spacecom Policy draft promises “revolutionary change.”

“The activities will never be the same again,” he said. The changes will allow access to a range of areas including satellite communications capacity, while private launch vehicle companies will be able to launch from ISRO’s facilities. “The complete ecosystem is accessible.” 

The draft Spacecom Policy 2020 was published mid-October and was open to comments until Nov. 4. The draft act is under consideration and is expected to be put in place in the next few months, but timing will be down to the legislative process.

INSPACe, a new

… Read More
modern technology

‘Dangal’ star Fatima Sana Shaikh on ’90s- The New Indian Express

[email protected]_84

By PTI

NEW DELHI: There is a certain romance and sweetness to the 1990s that was free from the hassles of social media overdrive, believes “Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari” actor Fatima Sana Shaikh for whom playing hide-and-seek with her friends is the most memorable part of the bygone era.

Shaikh, who stars in the ’90s-set comedy “Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari”, said the information explosion of the digital age is in stark contrast to the slower, less corrupt decade which saw the arrival of Internet.

“There was technological development at that time but it was not corrupted. There was no social media bullying. Technology was very new, so everything appeared sweet and romantic.

“There were telephones, there was no instant messaging like today. We did not used to get hassled by technology then. Now we look for a detox,” the 28-year-old actor told PTI in an interview.

Shaikh, who was a

… Read More
smartphone

Indian smartphone makers poised for comeback!

[email protected]_84

India does have a handful of home-grown smartphone manufacturers. But the bitter truth is that they have failed miserably in cornering the massive, lucrative home market.

The barrage of cheaper Chinese products packed with high-end specifications, making their way into India since 2016, have relegated Indian brands to oblivion. As of now, four Chinese brands, namely Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Realme, along with South Korea’s Samsung, command over 94 percent of our market.

Even the rising anti-China sentiment galvanised by the deadly Chinese attack on Indian troops in the northern border in Ladakh failed to revive the domestic manufacturers’ fate.  As per latest reports, smartphone shipments in India hit a record 50 million in the September quarter.

But there could be a glimmer of hope.

In October, after three-long years, Samsung gained the number one spot in India’s smartphone market beating Xiaomi. This is in part due to the anti-China

… Read More
science daily

Indian fossils support new hypothesis for origin of hoofed mammals — ScienceDaily

[email protected]_84

New research published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes a fossil family that illuminates the origin of perissodactyls — the group of mammals that includes horses, rhinos, and tapirs. It provides insights on the controversial question of where these hoofed animals evolved, concluding that they arose in or near present day India.

With more than 350 new fossils, the 15-year study pieces together a nearly complete picture of the skeletal anatomy of the Cambaytherium — an extinct cousin of perissodactyls that lived on the Indian subcontinent almost 55 million years ago.

Among the findings includes a sheep-sized animal with moderate running ability and features that were intermediate between specialized perissodactyls and their more generalized mammal forerunners. Comparing its bones with many other living and extinct mammals, revealed that Cambaytherium represents an evolutionary stage more primitive than any known perissodactyl, supporting origin for the group in or near India

… Read More